La Dee-vina Comedia

I'm not in favour of changing the name of Brunton Avenue...but if it is to be changed, Barassi is the right person to name it after. I would have preferred giving names to the various "roads" that wind through Yarra Park outside the MCG with Barassi Way being used for whatever is considered to be the most significant of those roads. Other roads could be named after other sporting luminaries associated with the area such as Bill Lawry, Jack Dyer and Betty Cuthbert.

"...their final practice match..." And their first if you subscribe to the idea that last week was a simulation and not a practice match.

Maybe so the umpires know to deduct those from players' total disposals (if they choose)

Am I the only one wondering why hot pink is not considered to be fluoro?

It's hard to mount an argument that N Daicos is not worthy of winning the Brownlow Medal. Having said that, how does giving umpires some statistics change the likelihood of a midfielder winning the Brownlow Medal? That's what it already is. And the coaches' award isn't much different.

Seems like a common sense decision from AFL administrators. And that's a rarity in itself.

For everyone complaining that Pickett isn't on the list...read the article. McClure makes clear that to be on his list of A-graders, you need to have performed at an A-grade level for at least two seasons. He notes that Pickett will be on the list next year if his 2026 is as good as his 2025.

As it's his first officially unofficial outing, can I ask what has probably been addressed elsewhere, but is Latrelle Pickett officially called "Pickett" or "Sumner-Pickett"?

I like the way Demonland's title for this thread optimistically converts a question "...is [Jeffo] ready to soar in 2026?" into a bold statement ("Jeffo Ready to Soar in 2026")

Add Liam Jurrah to the list of best players to watch. Robert Flower is still on the top of both my "best" and "best to watch" lists. And Max Gawn comes second on both.

My suspicion is that the AFL years ago promised Richmond and Carlton (and/or the free-to-air broadcaster) that they would play the first game of the first round. To avoid breaking that commitment, the AFL plays some games in a round that's not called the "first round" which immediately precedes what is called the "first round". If I'm right (and I've seen no evidence that says this is the reason) it's very slippery sophistry.

What is funny is asking AI to "show me the current time on an analogue clock"

Have you checked your mail since you got back to see if they've sent you a restraining order? 🙂

"20 minutes plus time on"? Why the time on? What does it add? Why not just make it three periods of 25 minutes each?

Maybe this belongs in the Lookalikes thread, but: Marlon Neocleous Draft Profile - Aussie Rules Rookie Me Central (formerly AFL Draft Central)

We might all be over-reacting. How can we be sure that Mitch Cleary got his facts right? Just maybe "People at Hawthorn say Al has become Sam Mitchell's new obsession" might actually mean Sam Mitchell is obsessed with his predecessor, Alistair Clarkson.

I think this is a really good point. Players like James Hird, Dustin Martin and Scott Pendlebury seem to have already worked out what they're going to do with the ball before they've got it.

Or maybe he wants to see what Zac Merrett looks like in all the different Hawthorn jumpers.

Not just every kid, but also every adult, too. In fact, even though I'm in my 60s I'm still just as likely to get a game now as I was as an 18-year-old. I always thought Harmes was a limited player with average skills which he made up for with unparalleled effort. I would have picked him every week on that alone.

Well argued.

Is Oscar Berry category B? If not, what category is he?

"4 Days of Darfness"?

Or maybe he'd just returned from performing some super-hero task and hadn't changed.

Have just watched the clip. It's possible that those two sentences were edited together. The first one was about the difference between King and Goodwin. The second one might have also been about life under the new coach, but it might also have been about something else, such as changes to the playing personnel.

This is where we differ. I think if a team finishes tenth of the ladder and goes on to win the premiership, it has made a mockery of the whole home and away season. And given the home and away component is about 85% of the season (in time spent), I think that's a problem. Mind you, I doubt we'll ever see it happen, so we won't know whether your view or mine ends up being correct.